JOHANNESBURG - David Bullard has described the way in which the Sunday Times sacked him as a columnist as a "bit like having acid thrown in your face." Bullard is taking the newspaper to the Labour Court to contest his dismissal. Now a regular columnist for Moneyweb, he has recently written a series of scathing articles about his former employer.
Bullard was defenestrated in April 2008 following an uproar over a satirical column the newspaper had published by him mocking the idea that colonialism was the sole cause of Africa's underdevelopment.
In an extensive interview with Gill Moodie of the Grubstreet.co.za website (see here) Bullard explained his motivations behind taking the newspaper to court. Speaking of the personal repercussions of his sacking Bullard told Moodie that it was "incredibly difficult and has been very traumatic for both my wife and I have to say that I was incredibly depressed for two or three months [thereafter]." Apart from trying to get his old job back - and compensation for lost earnings - Bullard says that "I just want fairness because I think putting posters around town saying: ‘Bullard sacked for racist article' was very dirty and completely untrue."
Bullard also explains, in the interview, how it was he came to apologise to ANC president Jacob Zuma. "I was speaking at a breakfast at Emperor's Palace... and the lady at the table said: "You know Jacob Zuma is still suing you for R1.2-million? I don't know if you know it but would you like me to make it go away?" I thought that sounded quite nice but I thought it was a wild play. Then I got a phone call at about 10am that day to say I must be at a meeting 4.45pm. (I went off and met) the lady in question, who handles Zuma's legal affairs with newspapers, and she set up an apology within the day."
Bullard says that, "Mr Zuma sat at the end of the table silently while I made my speech to him, saying that having been on the other side - having been the hunted rather than the hunter - I understood what it was like and the damage that your family suffer and I offered my apologies. To which he replied: ‘I accept your apology without qualification, Mr Bullard'. The lawyers from the Sunday Times phoned the next day and it was all gone.
Bullard says he asked Zuma "if he ever got depressed about all the comments (made about him) and he just said no. I think he just takes it. I would have been hugely depressed about it, including (the things) written by the paper I used to work for - especially the things I'd written..."
The full interview can be found here
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